Midwest Games raises $2 million to support its 'publishing as a service' model
Wisconsin-area publisher Midwest Games has announced a $2 million strategic investment to bolster its publishing resources. The investment comes from Kansas City-era investment firm Prevail Private Capital, the firm's first investment in the video game industry.
The move is meant to bolster publishing resources for what Midwest Games calls its "publishing-as-a-service" model. In a statement accompanying the announcement, Midwest Games founder and CEO Ben Kvalo stated that the company is scaling up in order to "give more partners the strategy, marketing, and production expertise they need to get their games to market and succeed."
Prevail CEO Kerry Lawing praised the publisher's mission of supporting developers from underrepresented regions, saying that the company is "the type of values-driven innovator we want to back." These include developers like Tombwater developer Moth Atlas out of Columbus, OH and The Legend of Baboo developer Permanent Way out of Istanbul in Turkey.
The announcement states that the company will use the new funding to "expand its team, strengthen data-driven insights, and broaden its global capabilities."
2025 certainly seems to be a surging year for the emerging publisher. In January Midwest Games hired former Bungie vice president of production Elizabeth Howard to as a short-term adviser to spearhead what it then called its "shadow publishing" initiative.
A Midwest Games spokesperson confirmed to Game Developer that Howard exited before the current funding round after helping standing up its shadow publishing strategy, described as "comprehensive white-labeled services" and "flexibility" for developers while allowing them to retain ownership of their games' intellectual property.
Update 9/25: This story has been updated to clarify Howard's advisory role at Midwest Games.
